I made a 15 spool thread dispenser and it cost me $15.55 (including tax, lol)

I bought:

2 dowel sticks3 pieces of wood1 package screw eyes (need one more screw eye, though - so that'll be another $1 - they are sold in packs of 14)screws - to hold the wood togetherand 2 drill bits - one for each size - the dowel sticks and the screws/screw eyes - our drill bits were dull so dh got new bits on this shopping outing - or the bill would have been $5.88 cheaper)

It's really simple - let me know if you wnat me to scan my pattern that I made - but I ended up with a few mods as I discovered the wood I bought could support 15 spools, not 10 as originally spec'd. ..

BettyAnn

Here's how I did it:

I saw a pic of a thread spool holder.

i took that concept and simplified it into a few pieces of wood. I'm telling you it's AWESOME!!!

So if you or a dh/someone in your house is even remotely handy with tools (you can get the people at the hardware store (I was at lowe's) to precut your wood to the right lengths. All you need to do is drill a few holes to start the screw eyes and the screws to hold the base and top together, and more holes drilled to hold the dowel sticks.

1 piece of wood 1/2" x 2" x 24" = cut to 10" (this is top where you'll screw the eyes in to hold the thread) - save the rest for another project

2 dowel sticks 3/16" x 48" = cut this at home with pliers or something (I used long nose pliers - the wire cutter part - shh, don't tell dh, lol) - made each piece 3 3/4" long (you need 15 cuts of this). you will end up with most of one dowel stick left over - but that will be good in case you have troubles figuring out what to use to cut the dowel (I 'wasted' a cut because I used my miter saw for the first cut and that didn't work well - it splintered)

Sandpaper - to smooth the edges of the wood and the dowel sticksglue of some kind - to secure the dowels in positionwax paper (I used this under the base so I could prevent damage to my table when gluing thru the holes for the dowels)

2 pkgs of 1/2" screw eyes (you need 15 - 14 are in a package)

#6 x 1" screws - I used 6 for the project total (I think there were 10 or something in the package)

drill bits if you need them.

really it's simple - esp since Lowe's cut my wood for me. I just took it home, marked where I wanted screws attached and screw eyes and holes for my dowels and asked my dh to do that for me (I can do it, but he looks so GOOD doing it! )

You might even have some of the materials already at home. I have used up most of our scrap wood from house projects so I had to purchase all materials. We only have a couple of screw eyes in the storage bin so I needed those, too.

Let's hear it for ingenuity! I don't have an embroidery machine, but I can appreciate your desire to have a helpful accessory without the cost. Yours will hold up far longer than the plastic one you could have ordered.

This concept could be adapted for a single cone of serger thread to use in a conventional machine. I did purchase a plastic one of those.

Thanks for the spool dispenser! I am going to add this to my please make this for me list!I can see how it would speed things up - right now I lay them all out on my knitting machine in the correct order...

Fantastic Fantastic Fantastic I love this idea. I have loads of million mile spools of thread for my overlock. This is a great idea for my regular machine. Now to put on my wish list an embroidery machine. Thank you so much for the tute!!